Weekend Movie

A film that treats female friendship with respect, not as a device to get one of the women hitched to the right guy and not as an undeveloped subplot to serve as comic relief until said protagonist walks down the aisle.

This is at the heart of why “Bridesmaids” was such a smash success—it;s obvious that Wiig conveyed something truthful about female characters who felt like friends and not plot devices or the broad caricatures of so many Hollywood comedies. And yet we’ve seen few films like it since. And so the moments of believability in the surprisingly entertaining “Life Partners” have greater resonance. Yes, the plot machinations puncture a bit of that believability balloon, but the honesty in this film’s core love triangle is something that other filmmakers, especially those interested in telling stories about women, would be wise to copy.